FOXHOUND Chronicles: The Praying of the Mantis
by Dark-Angel-13-UK
Summary: Another chapter of the FOXHOUND Chronicles, this time we enter Psycho Mantis's mind some moments before his fight with Snake. Dedicated to Martin G, who if it weren't for him I'd never have finished it and he's a great inspiration, thanks a lot!


Into Mantis's Mind

The flames flicked through his mind. The haunting tune echoed in his brain. Over and over, again and again, his past replayed on his eye lids. Psycho Mantis quickly flicked them open, his breathing coming slowly behind the gas mask strapped to his face. His scars were deep and bore down to his very soul. The sound of the hymn playing allowed his mind to centre. Snake was nearby and this Meryl. Meryl……Snake's weakness, his flaw. She would have her use and Mantis would have his fun with them later. He turned slightly and his eyes settled on the mirror to his left. Cracked and broken, much like himself. He had been wanted by FOX-HOUND for his mind, without him the genome soldiers would never have mutinied and given support to the terrorists. Liquid needed Mantis more than he thought. Mantis had never cared about the revolution, or of Liquid's eccentric plans of world domination. The idea almost bought humour to his twisted mind. His past had shaped him into a merciless killer only using this terrorist threat to kill as many as he could. He did not care about the people he slaughtered. They were just bodies, things, meaningless objects. The massacres almost gave him comfort, and excuse to continue, a vent for his rage.

The hymn reached another crescendo, peaking his mind. His past came back once more, racking his mind. The hatred in his father's mind had been great. He hadn't forgotten it, even though he had experienced it so early in his life. The blame Mantis's father had for his son over the death of the boy's mother, the grief couldn't see past the fact that his birth had led to her death. The shock of knowing of his father's hatred changed his whole perspective on life; even at such a young age, his despair was unparalleled. He remembered not really being able to control himself on knowing how his father felt. The doctors had called it a subconscious violent kinetic reaction. Turned out he taken the rest of his village with him, in a huge burning inferno, killing over 1000 people. Mantis had never felt any guilt for their deaths, and had worn the gas mask to hide the scars he bore from that accident, to hide away from the acknowledgement and as a way to control his mental ability. The hymn began again, soothing his mind from the burns of the past.

Suddenly another wandered into his mind, of a wife, affection, yearning for her companionship. Mantis whipped his eyes open, confused initially, no such person existed in his life. The door quietly opened, a genome soldier marched in, saluted and stood at attention, waiting for his commander's response. Before Mantis did, the thought can back in his mind, along with a feeling of discomfort in the presence of someone. The masked man soon realised what was going on, he himself was causing this discomfort. Those thoughts had been of the soldier's standing uneasily infront of him. Of the man's wife, dislike of his orders to be in the middle of nowhere, away from his family and to be reporting to a scarred man in a gas mask as his commander. A normal person would probably have felt sympathy or guilt for making this man feel this way but Mantis showed nothing of the sort. He had spent so long delving into other's minds, his own mind has become empty of his own conscience thought. It was always stuffed with the mindless obsessions of others, unwanted by unable to rid of. His training at the KGB had tried to get him to harness his psychokinetic and telepathic abilities, unaware of the consequences it would have on his psyche. After the Soviet Union fell, the KGB had no interest to him as did the FBI eventually. His freelance status and joining of FOXHOUND had just filled his mind with the hatred it now reeked of, and the same sex obsessed wants of so many thoughts of so many people he has drove into. Mantis shook off his thoughts and looked at the nervous soldier. Noticing his attention, the soldier then reeled off the mandatory hourly report on the facility. It bored Mantis, for he already knew everything that was going on, he only need look into the mind of any genome soldier on the base to notice any unusual occurrence. The soldier finished with sightings of Snake in the area, it appeared he was searching for that Meryl of his. Mantis dismissed the soldier and dwelled on the last bit of information. He hadn't been monitoring Snake's movements for a while, consumed in his own past and thoughts of the last half hour or so. "Well, this should get interesting soon……Snaaaaake…….hmmm we shall soon put an end to this." 

The soldier let the door slid shut, leaving Mantis alone once more as the hymn began it's soothing repetitiveness again. Soon more crept into his mind, and he began to focus on Snake again. He was still thinking of disarming Metal Gear with the PAL card………so little he knew of his real purpose at the base. Mantis turned his attention to Meryl. He began to feel the woman's mind, making it open to him. He had done it before, after Snake had escaped from the cell, with Meryl's "help". But after being closed to him for such a time, Mantis began to map her mind once more. He began feeling her body, experiencing her past... and controlling her will. Just the simple things, standing waiting for Snake, tapping the Desert Eagle against her thigh. He could vaguely hear his hymn in the background of his subconscience, but it faded as he moved deeper into Meryl's mind. They approached and their futures became entwined as the door slid open to his room, and he watched, silently and in secret. He was in complete control. "What's the matter Snake? You don't like girls?". 


End file.
